On Saturday I went into Galway to get on with amassing sketches for my new book, An Urban Sketcher’s Galway. I wasn’t too happy to leave the cosy home and drive into a busy, wet town, but time’s a-wasting, and my deadline looms, so I did. You know, one of the best things about the…
DetailsI am collecting sketches for my new book, An Urban Sketcher’s Galway. Being January, I try to identify indoor locations with big windows. This plan is working: there are far more big windows than I had ever realised. One of them is in Papa Rich, an Asian-fusion type restaurant in the centre of town, and…
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DetailsIt was the 1990s. I’d just completed my first year in the university of Galway. It was time to choose the subjects for the next year: I was in a hall full of students milling about, choosing the subjects they wanted to pursue, and then joining queues at tables with someone from each department at…
DetailsYesterday was Gloomy Monday, the most miserable day of the year. That made sense. I went into Galway City yesterday to get on with a sketch I need to do, and I sent a text to my husband that read “You cannot imagine a more crappy and miserable day in Galway. Pouring rain, freezing cold…
DetailsI’m working intensely to finish a book for the end of February, and so I find myself in Galway City a lot these days. “An Urban Sketcher’s Galway” will be the Galway that I have come to know over the years since I arrived here in 1991, in words and pictures. In the twenty-seven years…
DetailsLast night I had an hour and a half to kill while my daughter did her Tae Kwondo class. There aren’t many places to go in Gort on a cold January evening, but I like the Lady Gregory Hotel. Sure enough, there was a nice cosy atmosphere in the hotel bar and soon I had…
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Marriage brings all kinds of benefits. If you have married into a family sprinkled with other countries of origin, your life can be enriched in many ways. I feel very lucky to come from a family of mixed origin – my mum is Canadian, my grandparents English – and to have married into a British…
DetailsMy family and I had the pleasure of the company of my brother on St Stephen’s Day. We went for a walk along the Flaggy Shore, Co. Clare. To get there you drive south from our house in Kilcolgan, through the village of Kinvara, then after a bit you take a side road along the…
DetailsI am proud of my family’s international heritage, which has enriched us more than words can say. My mother-in-law Erika is an Austrian who has lived most of her life in London, and she has contributed the most charming and wonderful things to our extended family. There’s her lovely accent, a pretty, elegant tongue that…
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